allure of the cool: mink deville "cadillac moon" (1976)

(my apology for the potentially slow page load-too many videos embedded)



a soul, been known as willy deville
quit his human thing, this past summer



it's so good to see the guy be so cool
unabashedly, no holding back
so good to see one do "it" by
letting oneself go all the way
-be it cool, tragic, beautiful-
just the idea of allowing it to go
as far as it wants to go
enlivens me to no end


(((you are free to do anything in creativity
in any way you want it)))


now, "cool" is a delicate concept
easy to be dissed in a grown-uppy shyness
but guys like this know better, for
"cool" is like "abstract"
it's there, to get to the heart of it
right down to it, not the otherwise...


the song of choice for my little tribute is
from his early recordings, "cadillac moon"
in this song i hear
the story telling with absolutely no judgments attached
-much like also newly titled "late" jim carroll was-
and it never cease to lure me to return, to a place where
everything gleams mysteriously in the dark and
all of the humanness are embraced, 100% shame free


below:
"cadillac moon" by mink deville,
couldn't post the whole song







additionally,
here's willy talk about the album "live at cbgb's" (the whole article can be found here):

"The guy had about ten miles of tape of us, and they put on what they wanted to . . . the only thing I wanted put on there was 'Cadillac Moon' . . . the rest of it, I had no choice . . . all of 'em are 'I hate New York' songs. I went up to the studio and the guy there said, 'Every time somebody comes up here it costs me $100' and I said, 'An, please . . . okay, I'll split . . . spare me.' He took 45 minutes to mix three songs . . . it's really scary. I mean, the guitars are so outa tune -- I was playing a #13 Japanese leopard skin guitar. But there's something about it I like -- I don't know what. It was very amateurish."

i think it sounds fantastic, willy---

wing dress update: viva solstice!!

unbearable to face the fact of life that
days getting shorter every day
i been burying my head in
clouds pink and gray,
a distinctively 1950's color combination

but that's over now, folks!
now it's officially the turn-around time
over here on north half of our planet

to add some holiday cheers on top of
such a grande-happy occasion,

here is my new process video for
the version #1 of my wing dress, completed



the best part was that
while shooting the vid, i had an audience
a young fella watched me work for
perhaps more than 30 minutes from distance
that was the best compliment i got from locals
this past year, if not an entire time i spent here


feliz navidad!!

wing dress update: red, corrupt and beautiful

owowow
lookie lookie
what is that immodest piece of clothing?



well i tell you what it is
that is a slip dress
made of red silk
i test-dyed previously as
part of my wing dress project

here i'm working on
an undergarment for the dress
that is made of a very fine silk in ivory

the red was the first piece of the slip dress
test piece using left-over reds

in below picture you see my
free-hand approach to the pattern making
and my hard-working scissor



following two photos:
tattered edges and irregular stitches
that's all intentional




inspiration came from
hand-stitched clothing in war time
shown at war memorial museum in shinjuku, tokyo

there i found incredible hand-mades
most beautiful to me was small red rectangular patches
as emblems-so irregular, crudely stitched on army green

took my breath away...

i'm not going pro nor anti war here
rather, am "flattening" it, i'd say
seeing it without ready-made judgment attached
even with the subject as loaded as ww2

i saw them flattened and
they spoke to me in a language of silence that is
all inclusive, even the folly as colossal as ww2

back to the immodest

below:
no longer corrupt
now it's looking
rather angelic in cream



below:
hand-stitched first to
keep this slippery material in place



below:
details of the angelic




website for the museum mentioned is
all in japanese, got some images of fine hand stitching

the place seems to focus on
"how hard it was for us (japanese)"
i'd like to pay my tribute with silent prayers to
those, of the other part of asia, who were wronged by "us", and
those of us who took part in wronging "them"
and acknowledge, in this humble blog, that
i, as a foolish human, possess a potential to
be on the wrong side of the coin,
and put down the facade of innocence
for i live in the modern, built on such history

thank you for your visit!!